


When I Wake

by peculiarmars



Series: When You Break [10]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Autistic Draco Malfoy, Fluff and Angst, Good Slytherins, M/M, Protective Harry, TW: Slurs
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-05
Updated: 2017-06-05
Packaged: 2018-11-09 13:03:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,214
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11105127
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/peculiarmars/pseuds/peculiarmars
Summary: Harry rested his head on Draco's, sighing softly."I wish this war didn't have to exist. I wish we could just be kids." He said quietly."I share the sentiment." Draco murmured back.





	When I Wake

**Author's Note:**

> Im trying to make the next part of this series a bit longer than the previous pieces, bc its going to deal with horcrux's and other things needed to advance the plot. I'm planning on doing a rewrite of the deathly hallows in this au - which may take some time, so im going to try doing longer parts instead of posting short stuff frequently.

This was perhaps the most horrible thing he had ever felt.

  


He felt like he could feel everything, every brush of cloth on his skin, the tingle of skin-on-skin contact. He could hear the murmur of voices, the loud clack of shoes on stone floors. Every whisper was driving needles into his skull.

  


Memory after memory flittered through his mind, slow enough to let him get a glance, but they slipped through his fingers like smoke when he reached towards them.

  


_A small girl with dark hair. "You don't talk much, do you?" The smell of freshly cut grass._

  


_"That's okay, because I can talk for both of us," making daisy chains with the flower girl._

  


And then it changed,

  


_A skinny boy in the robes shop. "Hullo, Hogwarts, too?" The skinny boy didn't say much._

  


_He thought the skinny boy was like him._

  


And then it was gone,

  


_"Draco, do you want me to floo to Lucius or Narcissa?"_

  


_"NO! No, no no! Leave me alone!" The feeling of teeth in his hands, the scream tearing its way through his throat._

  


_"Moody had absolutely no right to do that to you,"_

  


And then it vanished,

  


_"He's been asleep for over twenty-four hours! Why hasn't he woken up?" Why was the flower girl here?_

  


_"He's exhausted, physically and mentally. I'm surprised he even managed to attend any lessons. He had quite a shock, poor boy. Damn that woman!"_

  


They were talking about him. This was different to the others. He couldn't see them, he was still alone in the dark. He groaned at the clack of heels on stone. He had always hated that sound.

  


_"Rita Skeeter is an illegal animgus."_

  


_The skinny boy?_

  


_"We should do something about that."_

  


_He laughed. He never thought that the skinny boy or the flower girl would agree on anything._

  


It was the oddest sensation. He felt it first in his fingertips. He flexed his hands, and panicked when they didn't move. He felt it spread through his arms and up his neck. He tried take in a breath, but all he inhaled was a thick fog.

  


He tried to turn his head, move away from the smoke that was curling over his body, but his body refused to obey him. He screamed, and the smoke engulfed him from the inside out.

And then he wasn't in the dark anymore

  


* * *

  


Draco moaned as his eyes opened, squeezing them tightly shut when he saw the bright white ceiling above him.

  


"Draco!" Harry gasped. He had been lightly dozing by the Slytherins bedside with Pansy when a moan jolted him out of his rest.

  


Draco moaned again, flexing his fingers underneath the blanket. He felt someones hand on his arm.

  


"Dray, can you open your eyes?"

  


He slowly peeled his eyelids open, eyes sliding to his left. He saw the blurry figures of Harry and Pansy. He blinked waiting for his vision to sharpen.

  


"Harry, Pansy..." He croaked. Harry pressed a glass of cool water to his lips and he sipped gratefully. "What happened?" He remembered being paired with Harry in potions, and Finnigan, he remembered them disagreeing about something. And then his memory failed him.

  


Harry and Pansy both stared at him with concern. "You don't remember?" Harry asked, sliding his hand under the sheet to grip Draco's. Draco squeezed it. Pansy pretended she didn't see.

  


"I remember potions," He recalled slowly, "I was paired with you and Finnigan. I don't remember -" And then he stopped as a memory slammed in into him like the Hogwarts express.

  


_Malfoy's Hidden Medical Records Shows Disabled Son_

  


_"Oi, Malfoy, are you a spastic?"_

  


"They know..." 

  


Harry averted his eyes.

  


"I'm sorry, Draco." Draco swallowed. _I'll deal with it later_ , he told himself.

  


"How long was I out for?" He asked, voice sounding stronger.

  


"A day," Pansy said. She refused to look him in the eye. He frowned.

  


"Pansy?" He said. Harry let out a long, sad sigh.

  


"There was another article when you were out-" Draco tensed, "not about you, about your Mother. She's gone missing." Harry told him, nodding slightly at Pansy. Draco understood. He fixed a shocked expression on his face, and acted lost for words.

  


"My Mother-" He started, disturbed by how easy it was to bring tears to his eyes. Pansy touched his leg through the blanket.

  


"The Aurors are looking for her, Dray. They'll find her."

  


_Oh Pansy, if only you knew_

  


Pansy Parkinson had been his best friend since he was four years old, and he longed to tell her the truth. But he understood that he couldn't. Even he and Harry knowing was dangerous enough, if the Dark Lord ever got his hands on him...

  


Draco shivered.

  


"Are people, you know, _talking?_ " He played with a lose seam on his blanket. The pressure was just right. Once again, he thanked Merlin for his Mother.

  


Harry ran a hand through his birds-nest like hair.

  


"Some are. I haven't been out much, but Ron and Hermione came in, and they said that some people have said... some things."

  


"Greg and Theo have already gotten detentions for punching people, Dray. You won't have to face the rest of the school alone." Pansy said comfortingly. Draco smiled, a silent thank you. You didn't do big gestures in Slytherin. It was the small things that mattered the most.

  


"And Skeeter? I take it nothings happened to her?"

  


"Me and Hermione have being thinking of a plan. She's had backlash for the article, 'cause not many people are heartless pricks like her. Me and Hermione are going to burn her alive." Pansy informed him calmly.

  


Draco snorted. "Nice,"

  


"Everything about me is nice, Dray"

  


Harry hid a snicker as Draco snorted again. " _En contraire_ , my dear friend." Pansy patted his leg, standing.

  


_"Je vais vous donner une certaine confidentialité. N'oubliez pas la protection!"_ She said gleefully as she practically skipped out of the hospital wing. Draco was red to the tips of his ears.

  


"You two speak french?" Harry asked.

  


Draco nodded. "My parents taught me, Pansy's parents taught her too."

  


"Oh," Harry said, "what did she say?" Draco thought he couldn't get any redder.

  


"Oh, nothing, nothing," he coughed. Draco cringed at the clack of heels on stone as Madam Pomfrey came bustling in, looking relieved as she saw Draco was up and talking.

  


"Oh, Mr Malfoy, you're awake!" She exclaimed. Draco flinched at the high pitch of her voice.

  


Just like that, the calm setting moments before had been shattered. He suddenly couldn't stand being inside, the noise was too much, and it drove needles through his skin. He shifted, trying to push down the urge to simply take flight.

  


Harry noticed, and gave him a concerned look. Madam Pomfrey continued talking, not noticing her patients reactions. Harry squeezed his hand tightly.

  


"Madame Pomfrey, could me and Draco go on a walk? To get him up and about?" said Harry, in a low voice. Madam Pomfrey paused.

  


"Yes, I supposed that could do him some good. First sign of trouble, and you bring him straight back, Potter."

  


Draco pushed the blanket off of him, breaking Harry's hold on his hand as he grabbed his wand, casting cleaning and anti-wrinkling charms. Honestly, how could he think of going out looking like _that_?

  


Draco clutched his blanket to his chest, wanting to be brave enough to leave without it. But he couldn't. He _needed_ it. He bit his lip as he glanced at Harry.

  


"They won't dare say anything. You've got Slytherin and part of Gryffindor on your side, Draco, and anyone else who has a sense of decency."

  


Draco slipped his hand into Harry's, taking a deep breath.

  


* * *

  


Draco could feel hundreds of eyes on him, and heard the faint mutterings of whispers. There were too many too identify as one person, and even with the comforting pressure of Harry's hand in his, it still made him want to curl up somewhere and cry.

  


"Just breathe," Harry's gentle voice drowned out the whispers, and he focused on that and putting one foot in front of the other, being led by Harry.

  


Not one student actually said anything to his face, the only student who dared to look properly at him was a small Slytherin third year, Astoria Greengrass. Daphne Greengrass's younger sister. She smiled at him as they passed in the corridor.

  


They kept walking until they made it out onto the grounds, and then Draco took charge. He guided Harry to the deserted lakeside. It was mid afternoon, and most other students were still in lessons.

  


Draco sat on the ground in front of the lake, crossing his legs. Harry sat behind him, an arm around his shoulders. Draco relaxed into his touch.

  


"Did you get word from the Order? About my Mother?" Draco asked.

  


"Yeah, Dumbledore told me in person. Remus and Tonks confirmed it. She's safe, Draco."

  


"Good," Draco mumbled into Harry's neck. "Tonks is the metamorphus, isn't she?"

  


"Yeah, her first name's Nymphadore, but she hates it." Harry chuckled, recalling the hexes Tonks would throw if someone dared to utter her first name.

  


"She's my cousin. Never met her. I think I'd like to one day."

  


Harry squeezed his shoulders. "You probably will, 'cause of - nevermind." He swiftly cut himself off as thoughts of the oncoming war clouded his mind. He didn't want to think about it, but it was inevitable.

  


The war was coming. He would be a fool to deny it.

  


Draco found Harry's hand and lightly traced his fingers over the blood quill scar.

  


"He won't win." Draco said firmly. "I know he won't." They both knew he wasn't just trying to convince Harry.

  


Harry rested his head on Draco's, sighing softly.

  


"I wish this war didn't have to exist. I wish we could just be kids." He said quietly.

  


"I share the sentiment." Draco murmured back.

  


* * *

  


Madam Pomfrey had cleared Draco to go back to lessons the next day. He walked into Defence Against the Dark Arts with his head held high, a false confidence. Vince and Greg flanked him, Blaise and Pansy in front, Theo at the back. No-one dared to say anything.

  


He tried not to feel crushed when Severus refused to even look in his direction. Surely, he must of known by now that he had defected.

  


He walked into Potions with Pansy and Vince at his sides, being already informed by Harry that they were working in the same threes as before.

  


Harry openly grinned at him as he made his way over to their shared desk. Draco smiled back. Seamus rolled his eyes.

  


"Right, if you two can tear your eyes off of each other, we're making Amortentia today." Seamus muttered as he went to get the supplies.

  


"Didn't we make that already?" Harry asked, scratching his head.

  


"Slughorn wants us to try again." Hermione told him as she walked past with a cauldron.

  


Seamus dumped the ingredients on the desk and then flicked through his potions book. Harry did the same with the Half Blood Prince's book. Draco, who was a known expert in potions, didn't need instructions. He looked over at Harry's book anyway.

  


"I swear to Salazar I've seen that writing before." Draco muttered. "Half blood Prince..."

  


Seamus glanced between them, and then promptly went on with his work. Whatever was going on between the two was none of his business.

  


The three worked in a comfortable silence, with only the odd quip from Draco or Harry. Seamus wondered if they knew how hard they were flirting.

  


"Ah, class, listen up. If you have done the potion correctly then you should be able to smell it now, lets see," Slughorn hummed, "Harry! Yes, Harry, tell us what you smell."

  


Harry hesitantly sniffed, not wanting the class to know what he smelt. He wanted it to be private. But with thirty pairs of eyes on him it was hard to make a dash for it.

  


"Uh, I smell broomstick polish, hair gell and-" He took another sniff, blinking at the strong smell. "-that really expensive cologne you get from Diagon Alley."

  


Draco blushed, knowing exactly who Harry was smelling. The Slytherins in the room slyly glanced to Draco, knowing that he practically doused himself in that cologne every morning. Granger and Weasley both glanced his way.

  


And then a Gryffindor girl who's name he didn't know muttered, "Typical. Potter's attracted to the retard."

  


Draco didn't even have time to move before Harry launched himself across his desk, slamming his fist into the girl's face. She shrieked and went down immediatly. Slughorn rushed over, and Pansy drew her wand - not to help Slughorn, of course, to hex the offending girl in the face.  Blaise held back Vince and Theo blocked Greg's path. Pansy and Potter had this. They could always catch the Gryffindor later if she didn't learn her lesson the first time around.

  


Ron grabbed Harry by the shoulders, "Not here, Harry, not here," He hissed as he pulled Harry off of Lavender Brown, who was a sobbing mess. Slughorn sent Harry straight to Dumbledore, Parvati Patil took Lavender to the hospital wing.

  


And then, at the worst possible time, Draco realised who had written in Harry's potions book.

  


_Half Blood Prince._

  


_Severus Snape._

  



End file.
